


when the sky brings the ocean to life

by crushings (venusundae)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Fantasy, Humanstuck, I'm a terrible person, except terezi is also a shapeshifter, namely karkat's parents and terezi's parents, pre-story character death, she's a dragon that's the whole point of everything okay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-09
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-25 18:46:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6206335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/venusundae/pseuds/crushings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"She can't be a mystery. She doesn't filter her insults nor stiffle her laughter and yet you can't help but feel she's hiding part of her from you. A big part of her."</p><p>Karkat's father has just died, and he finds surprising comfort in reflecting on his days to a friendly-seeming dragon he finds in the woods near the cemetery. Meanwhile, new aquaintance Terezi Pyrope is getting on his last nerve, but he can't seem to stop thinking about her anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. one

[dreamwidth mirror](http://crushings.dreamwidth.org/3920.html)

There's a rock in your shoe crunching along the leaf ridden path, and your brother won't stop complaining about the woman at work today who asked for a refund. Your back aches from lugging around your school books all day. The wind bites at your ears and you know it reddens your face as you trek on toward his grave. And it reminds you that you're alive and that it's not fair.  
Your name is Karkat Vantas, and you and your brother are here to visit your dead father.

You come here often enough by yourself. But your brother got off work early and you wanted to save yourself the lecture had you simply left without him. You know there is a small part of him that's only tagging along to make sure you follow your word and aren't just sneaking off to do "heaven knows what with those horrific friends of yours."

About ten minutes into the forest the small cemetery appears within a clearing. You are walking with your head to the ground, hands in your pockets, on a determined path to the stone marked 'Kankri Vantas Sr., beloved father'. You could get here with your eyes closed by now. You are watched here. And the closer you get the more that feeling overcomes you and you know you are at the right place. It is feeling a not of eyes upon you, simply of a curiosity sensing you with something other than sight. You wonder if seeing death has made you more superstitious, even despite the spooky company you tend to keep.

"Hey," you say, "we're here."

"Tradition dictates, though there are plenty of issues with tradition as a virtue to keep in mind--" A quick insult lies heavy on your tongue, but you bite it back. Kankri had only just shut up. You should really relish in the few moments of silence he had given you. Not that you're gonna. Either way, dad always hated it when you guys fought.

"Yeah well this is your first time here with me so it's not like there is much of a tradition, anyway."

You yank your bouqet of drug store flowers apart and shove half of them into Kankri's hands. 

"One time when I was twelve, you made me fall off my bike," you start. "I had only just learned to ride it without falling flat on my face every ten feet, finally, that I got ahead of myself of course and thought it'd be a goddamn fantastic idea to not be wearing elbow pads or knee pads. And of course, you had something to say about that."

Kankri's eyes light up with recognition as he interrupts, "Made you? That is completely out of context and an unfair example of my own character. I was simply looking out for your safety. Of course at the time, admittedly, I was naive as to the greater ways in which I could have mentioned your lack of precautionary measures, but no matter. My point still stands. It is actually a common theme throughout history for the biased narrator to give an audience--"

"You wanted tradition. This is traditionally what I do when I come here. You know, since I actually make a habit of it." What you don't make a habit out of is interrupting your brother. Rather you sit and fester while he rambles on oblivious of how stupid he sounds while you gather tid bits to explode about later to your friends. Your father always said there was an ocean in you. A rage that could be violent and feirce but only as quick as the flow of the tide before you recede just enough to recharge for the next burst of emotion. But you feel yourself ebb and never flow back, your natural rhythm thrown off by the sudden ripples of grief landing in your waters. So you'll take any excuse to flow back into anger now, even if halfhearted and tired. "Now if you'll give me the utterly generous pleasure of continuing, I'd like to finish my fucking story maybe.

"It was totally your fault. That I'll always admit." Kankri grimaces. "I was doing a fucking fantastic job at rounding the corners of the driveway over and over, thank you very much, when you had to come out yelling at me about safety gear and gangrene or something." Or something. As though you didn't remember the exact speech your brother had given you on the slippery slope of skinned knee infections down to the letter. You sigh, this story had seemed a better idea when you started. "Anyway, the distraction sent me on a brutal plunge into a sizzling world of pain on hot concrete. I channel the conviction of every 'fucking shit mother of hell goddamn' into shit like 'fiddlesticks' and whatever other stupid phrases I'd learned from dad at the ripe old age of six that I was."

"Is there a reason behind you recounting this story, Karkat?"

"I'm fucking getting there. So, dad comes out of the house, right?" There was a piece of lettuce stuck to his shoe from making lunch. You leave that part out. "He's super worried and stuff. Disinfects me. And then he tells me how lucky I am to have a brother who was so worried about me." Kankri smiles to himself. "And I was so mad, but I couldn't be mad at him. Because he was dad and. I don't know. I hadn't learned how to be mad at him yet. He was too good to us and I wasn't so fucked up yet. He just kept going on about how we'd take good care of each other because even when they hurt us we still know who loves us. And I don't know. Shit like that.

"I mean, it stopped working so much once I was older. Fuck anyone who says he didn't know his kids though, you know."

You pluck a flower from your bouquet and toss it on your father's grave.

"The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living." Kankri says.

"Hmmm."

"Marcus Tullius Cicero"

"Okay. Uh. I guess, just tell some dumb story already."

Kankri drolls on, about himself mostly, but you let it slide because you know your father was immensely proud of him. Still, you ebb, your eyes wandering. They land upon an open mausoleum in the center of the cemetery. A circle of pillars surrounds a stone coffin with a sizable dragon statue sitting above it. Guarding it, you think. You see carved out of the structure in strong lettering the name Pyrope.

Something about the glow of the green moss under blue moonlight evoked eternity in a way different than the mere congregation of death. A cemetery says forever with finality. Yet this one honored 'Pyrope' had a forever that was still being told, constantly changing. They knew what forever was, a place where nothing could truly be kept always the same. And the unseeing eyes of this dragon bore into you as though to remind you; it's something you know but have forgotten.

There is a lull in Kankri's speech, which is unusual enough to break you out of your trance. It's your turn now, apparently. Together you talk about first days of kindergarten, and of tiny handwritten notes in school lunches that used to be embarrassing, if never not touching. You talk about dad singing while he cooked dinner, or after a long day, soft humming, and about how the only lasagna either of you like is the kind he made from scratch. You talk about the time one of Kankri's friends got into some shit and needed $300 in a hurry, and your dad just forking it over like it was nothing during times when it was most definitely something. And how within a month all of Kankri's friends had pitched in to pay him back, just because that's the kind of guy your dad was to everyone.

You turn to leave, your hand messing with the crumple of wet cellophane in your pocket from the flowers. It wasn't so bad having your brother tag along, though you weren't going to admit that to anyone just yet. Still, you think you liked it better coming by yourself. This cemetery brought something out of the silence that helped you heal when you had nothing left to say.

You turn your head as you walk to take one last look at the place. You take in the scattering of flowers at your father's grave, all aglow each with their own little story of yours. The tree near the grave that you usually sit beside sways in the wind, as though to bid you farewell until next time. The mausoleum stands tall and heavy at the center of it all, and your gaze wanders over it after every stray elsewhere. Slowly, the broad and translucent feeling of being watched pinpoints itself opaque and ominous at the mausoleum. It's as though in the very bones of the dragon you are sensed.

You see something dart from behind the dragon and into the forest.

Grabbing onto your brother's sleeve you skid to a halt saying, "Hey did you see that?"

"Don't touch--" he says reflexively. He calms himself. He's been better at doing so lately. "Hrmn. See what?" 

Of course he hadn't seen it but you were so startled you had to say something. You don't let go of his sweater quite yet. "There's somebody in the forest. Somebody just ran into the forest." You can feel the ocean in you rumble, you can feel the tide threaten to flow into shore once more. You want to talk about this. You want to throw your arms up and theorize and let this fully consume the next few moments of your life.

"Don't be silly, Karkat. It was probably a deer or some other animal. Or even a bear? I must admit, I am not familiar with the local fauna, simply being informed by pop culture media, myself. If I am to be joining you out here more often I might as well remedy that, anyway. But honestly, Karkat, what is there to worry about if something ran into a forest we are actively leaving? Please don't snag this sweater. And so what if somebody entered the forest. Likely a very stupid move at this time of night - like I said, I don't even know what creatures are lurking within - but we have nothing to do with it. Karkat? My sweater, please!"

And again you ebb. But your waters still rumble and your fingers twitch so you send two messages on your way out because you'll be damned if you let this one die out so soon. As you leave you glance behind you a few more times. Eventually all you can see is a distant blue green glow and the dragon statue. For some reason you don't want to be the first to look away, as if the dragon could at any moment blink away itself. And so you stare until the path winds over and down, the cemetery now out of sight, and you have no more excuse to not watch where you're going.

You vaguely listen to your brother muse on about his work and his friends and his philosophy class, all the while desperately replaying what you saw over as though you could study something out of it in your mind. You were coming back eventually. Next time, you'd know what to look out for.

To: gA @ 10:35:19 P.M.  
HEY SO I KNOW I SAID I WOULDN'T ANYMORE. AND I'LL DEFINITELY STOP EVENTUALLY. BUT I JUST CAME FROM THE CEMETERY WITH KANKRI...

From: gA @ 10:36:45 P.M  
Of Course Come Right Over There Is Always Room For You Here

To: tA @ 10:38:03 P.M.  
DO YOU GUYS KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE MAUSOLEUM WITH THE DRAGON STATUE IN MY PARENT'S CEMETERY?

From: tA @ 10:45:28 p.m.  
normally kk ii'd repriimand you for iinterruptiing my one eveniing off wiith re2earch bull2hiit but aa ju2t gave me her "dii2covery" 2miile when ii read thii2 two her. ii'll get back two you

* * *

Your fingers curl around rough dry bark as you stretch your consciousness out toward the cemetery you just fled from. You could sense him watching you. You were used to being the voyeur, but never being spied upon yourself. That boy had been coming here for a while now. At first it bothered you. You had this place all to yourself for years and the occasional guest usually came during the daylight when you were out and about doing other things in the city. Now here was this boy who waltzed in only once the sun was setting, and stayed for hours on end. But he intrigued you. And he'd let you in immediately. Like he arrived hoping someone would be there to enter his thoughts and give him company during his solemn moments of reflection.

You wonder if he'd let you visit him tonight.


	2. two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat has a strange dream that urges him to go back to the cemetery once Aradia tells him of some spooky legends surrounding the mausoleum.

[dreamwidth mirror](http://crushings.dreamwidth.org/4576.html)

Darkness wraps around you everywhere that moonlight allows as the fog tickles your toes. Wind blows gently through the tree tops and lacy shadows dance upon the rotting ground. Tonight is perfect. He allowed you to stay with his consciousness even on his walk home, and you saw him replay over and over the sight of you running into the forest. He's very curious, and now you can't wait to play your game with him.

You dart behind a tree. For someone without vision you're rather adept at hiding. He hears the leaves rustle beneath you; he calls out a weak "hello?" You giggle. You can't help it. You hear him whip around. You move behind another tree. He follows. You repeat this for a while and he never relents or turns back, so you keep playing.

You don't know his name, but you ask it out of his subconscious and mirror it back to him. It has harsh edges but flows nicely, and that's all you can tell until he decides to let you know it himself. He's asking who is there now, and you release a giddy cackle as you run to a tree across a tiny clearing.

"I know you're there, I can fucking see you." If you're searching for it (you are) you can hear fear behind what he spits out. "Who are you?"

You want so much to leap from your hiding place and startle him -- feel the adrenaline rush through his synapses and laugh until he laughs with you. The thought of grabbing his hand while you do so passes through your mind quickly and you let it go. You wonder if he saw it.

"Hello?" he calls again. You can sense his desire to move toward you. He can't catch you yet, though. You're going to be the one to catch him first, and you're going to let him know it. You take off running now, following the moon in speckles through the canopy.

"Wait!" He sprints behind you. He's pretty fast for how short his legs are. But you have the biological advantage, even in dreamscapes. You reach your destination. A giant cavern in the ground looms before you. You stop at the edge of the canyon, and take a moment to let the breeze flow around you. You turn toward him, still trying to catch up to you. The fog falls over the edge of the cliff like water, and you grin at him and wave before dropping yourself backward into the depths of the canyon.

Your name is Terezi Pyrope, and you fall as smooth and slow as the fog. He shouts out to you before he wakes up.

* * *

You wake up yelling, though it takes you a while to notice you're awake. You're sitting up already, and take in your surroundings. There's about three too many quilts on top of you and the gold and green living room you seem to be in shines even in the dull morning darkness with a lack of dust nor debris. Oh yeah, you're at Kanaya's house. You seem to never not be there, lately. 

She seems to have heard your screaming, for she suddenly appears, a plate in her hand and concern on her brow. She gently drops herself onto the coffee table in front of you. 

"Bad dream?" she asks quietly, letting the sleep drip off of you naturally rather than startling it out of you.

You throw your arm over your eyes and lay back down. You shrug. You'd be more embarrassed if it were anyone but Kanaya around, and the thought has you flailing your arms before you in a graceless "well duh" motion.

She takes a nibble of what's on the plate, and offers it to you. "Toast?"

"I can take care of my own breakfast, you know," you mumble to her.

"I know that." She dusts crumbs off her fingers. "I simply made too much toast that's all."

"How does anyone make too much toast?"

She rolls her eyes. "I presume you don't want the excess bacon, eggs or sausage I've accidentally assembled, either, then."

You can't help smiling at her. You whip the blankets off yourself and stumble your way into the kitchen where she feeds you and lets you ramble to her about your dream.

 

"I don't know. I felt like I recognized the forest. And I mean it's a fucking forest, so in the vast shitpile of forests in the world how unique could it really be? It could just be any forest. But the way she was hiding, I guess, just reminded me of the person hiding behind the mausoleum."

Kanaya contemplates this for a while. "Are you suggesting this dream is prophetic in nature?"

"I don't know what the fuck I'm saying. Just that I'm a fucking idiot who can't stop thinking about shit that probably doesn't matter."

"If it matters to you that's significance enough."

"Hm. Thanks." You push your plate away from yourself and sigh. "So. I know it's probably a huge bother. And I should just get the fuck over myself already and deal with my shit like a grown ass person does but. I just. Really don't want to go home."

"Certainly, Karkat. Stay here as long as you'd like." She smiles reassuringly at you. "Of course, you know this means we're going to have to study at least a little bit."

You grimace and laugh a bit at that. "Yeah, I know."

 

You spend a good portion of the day with Kanaya studying, then watching movies, then goofing off, in that order. It hits you how often you're here - like really hits you - when Sollux and Aradia come over around three without even asking if you'd be over there. (You find out later they asked Kanaya where you were instead, which kind of proves the point).

"Knock knock, guess who's here, motherfuckers," Sollux mumbles, pushing the door open with an overstuffed messenger bag.

"And guess who brought anthropological paraphernalia!" Aradia fans herself with a manila folder.

"Meaning who browsed the public records while someone spouted mystical trance-induced keywords from her afterlife friends for me to search instead."

That's the core of their relationship, you recognize, and had been since they met on craigslist years ago when Aradia needed someone to help her hook up her blog because she was too busy digging holes and consulting Ouija boards to bother. He updates it under her own pen name, but most readers know by now that the sarcastic asshole on the written blog is a different person than the bubbly archeologist-in-training in the YouTube videos. Aradia finds interesting cases she wants to study, and Sollux uses some "sweet hacking skillz" to get her information about it. Usually that just means an extensive Google search.

Not to knock Aradia's own search engine skills too much. Sollux was just better than most people at such things.

"So, you've seen the dragon mausoleum at the cemetery, have you?" Aradia is too excited to let you answer before she's dumping photographs and newspaper clippings onto the carpet in front of you both. "There are a lot of interesting ghosty legends surrounding this place. Oh, I'm so excited you brought it up, Karkat!"

You finger through the articles Aradia threw around you. You recognize the cemetery, the tree that your dad's grave sits by now, pictured here without it. It weirds you out so you stop looking at it. Your eyes fall upon a newspaper clipping of a 'Tragic Death of Beloved Local Lawyer.'

"It's been there for a while," Aradia continues, holding up a photo.

"It's stunning," Kanaya hums.

"Yes! Legend has it, however, that it magically goes unnoticed by visitors of the cemetery where it lies."

"How is that even possible? It's fucking huge and practically glows."

"Well, did you notice it before last night, Karkat?" Aradia asks simply.

You pause. You hadn't, but you're not going to give her the satisfaction of knowing that just yet. "What's the big deal with it, anyway?"

"It only lets you see it once it wants to be seen by you. So now that you've seen it, we investigate!" She rubs her hands together and on her face grows the brightest, almost eerie grin. "In the mausoleum lies somewhat of a local celebrity, a lawyer--"

"Pyrope..." you muse without even meaning to, rubbing the clipping between your fingers.

"Right! Though the crowds liked to call her Redglare because of a signature set of red specs she donned at all times." She mimes looking over shades and wiggles her brows. "The details surrounding her death are... murky at best. A lot of her admirers think it's a sort of cruel irony that the one person who could have represented her in court best happened to be both the defendant and the deceased. That is, of course, if you're one of those who believes she was murdered. The case was dropped due to lack of evidence. It's sweet - those that loved her in life still visit and care for the mausoleum to this day."

You ebb. But you're not going to let it get away so quickly; you flow in again."Well why don't we go visit it now," you decide, "so you guys can check it out in person. Ghosty mumbo jumbo aside it's not like you could actually miss it in broad daylight when you're actively looking for it, right?"

"We've already seen it," they say in unison.

* * *

A small breeze plays at the tips of branches and tickles you with the hair at the nape of your neck. You wiggle your toes and stretch as far as you can from your position in the tree you sit in. You had just begun to relax when you hear footsteps approaching. Three of them. Not only that, but the boy is one of them.

You feel him more than hear him coming. His mind always reaches out towards you the closer he gets, and you welcome it with open arms. He normally comes at sunset, not leaving until after dark. The sun still warms you in spots through the delicious oranges of the leaves and you know it's hardly time for the boy to be visiting and yet here he is. With him is two voices you recognize very well. Sollux and Aradia are here, but what could they possibly be doing that they wouldn't have told you about?

You reach out to Aradia. Telepathic connections with her are tough; she's a lot more guarded than most people. It's a requirement of dabbling with the spirit world as often as she does. 

'You're with the boy I've been playing with!' you say into her, 'what are you guys doing here?'

'We're here to investigate!' Aradia tells you, and her walls are too thick so that's all you get.

You're used to this from Aradia. You note their path leads a way to the mausoleum. As nicely kept as it is you doubt they'll find what they're looking for there. If they want something interesting, you can give them something to investigate, alright. 

You won't have room to move about in the tree, so you leap down with a grunt. You can only hope the boy heard you and that you've piqued his interest already. But if you haven't yet, you will.

You stretch your arms above you, reaching up and clawing toward the sky like an invisible ladder that pulls your limbs longer from you as you reach. Your fists clench as you will claws to form and you wait for the pleasant bite into your thick palms before slashing them against a tree. Just for show, of course. Thick scales materialize from beneath your human flesh and immediately send hyper cold and super hot spots along you in the dappled shadows of the trees. You feel your center of gravity lurch forward and right itself as your legs swell and a tail emerges from your backside.

And then your favorite part: the wings. You twist yourself around and every vertebrae in your back pops. The hidden bones crack out of their place and outstretch behind you slow like honey but once they emerge they move as swift as your will. You're ready to fly.

But you don't. Not yet. You've got to get him riled up first!

Waving your thick tail back and forth behind you, you stalk forward through the trees. Leaves rustle and fall all around you with every smack your tail makes against the trees around you.

"Holy shit what was that?" you hear the boy ask. You grin to yourself. You edge nearer to the cemetery. They are waltzing ahead of you now. You let out a rough snort and disappear into the trees once more.

"What the--" the boy twists around to where you just escaped from. "I can't be the only one hearing this."

Sollux wraps an arm around the boy and leads him down the path, "Hearing what, kk? Come on, we're almost there." Behind the boy's head you sense Sollux turn toward the forest with a cut-it-out motion of hands against throat at you. That only eggs you on.

Now, you take flight. It's a stupid move during the daylight, but you usually let others worry about what the light should permit, anyway, since it has no bearing on your own interactions with the world. Though sightless, you're not free from earthly tangibilities while in the air. You sense what's around you with every ounce of your other senses, building a picture of the world in your mind that you can't escape. One with sight could just close their eyes to run away from it all, but you're vision is a unique one that is ever-present.

You're always one step ahead.

Your shadow passes over the ground, large and swift. "What the fuck was that?" the boy shouts from below. You get the feeling this level of distress is somewhere he's comfortable being. It amuses you.

You perch yourself into a large tree, rolling your shoulders back with casual pride. You clear your throat and get ready to release only the mightiest of roars when you hear a little voice in your head trying to reach out you. It's Sollux, feigning disinterest all while he strains for you to hear him. He's clairaudient, you remember, and is used to catching the messages at they float by but not so much throwing one out on his own.

'Terezi, what the hell do you think you're doing?' you hear, finally, in his trademark snark.

'Who's that boy you're with?'

'You don't know him.'

'He let me visit him in his dreams last night! I would say I do so know him.'

Sollux ignores your comment 'He goes to our school, though.'

'Hmmm, does he now?'

'What's with that look?'

'What look? I'm not--'

'I can't even see you right now but I know you're doing some devious shit eating grin so spill.'

'He comes here all the time, to the grave by the tree. He's the only one who comes after dark.'

'And so you spy on him you sick freak.'

'Heheh. It's tough making sure he does not see me!'

'Yeah you seem to be real worried about that, today, TZ.'

'Introduce me!'

'Why me?'

'Because we're friends and I'm asking you for this one favor, please!'

'Fuck you.'

'Thank you!'

'My locker after class I guess. Don't make me wait.'

'You're the best!'

'I know.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just friends hanging out, investigating shady deaths and spotting dragons together, the usual.  
> i can't believe i'm writing this but i literally am so thanks for stopping by


	3. three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat meets a strange creature in the woods at night. Meanwhile during the daytime, Sollux agrees to intorduce Terezi to Karkat.

[dreamwidth mirror](http://crushings.dreamwidth.org/4680.html)

So much for investigating. You'd made it to the foot of the mausoleum when Sollux and Aradia suddenly had you turning around due to "bad vibes, KK". But there was something strange about this neck of the woods. And if you could chalk it up to paranoia and superstition you would, but you actually heard something going on in the forest. You saw something happen there, but you don't know what. All you know is you had to find out what it was.

You had to come back.

You shuffle through the fallen leaves that make it hard to discern the trail from the ominous labyrinth that is the forest at night. Fucking arrhythmia threatens to settle in as you hype yourself up with ideas of what you could possible see in the forest, while simultaneously trying to calm yourself into not worrying about it. Maybe it's something paranormal and you should have brought the spooky duo with you. Aradia invited you to study with her and Sollux earlier and you should have just told them your plans in the first place.

You send a quick text to them and Kanaya saying if you go missing to check east of the cemetery for your body. Your phone beeps within a minute and you're sure it's Kanaya pestering you on what you're up to that could be so dangerous.

You reach for your phone when you hear something rustle in the leaves behind you. You whip around. Nothing is there.

Then the rustling is to your right and you twist to see what it is. You see a large shape hidden behind a tree. A shape that looks to be breathing heavily. It is all highly reminiscent of the dream you had the other day, and that sends your mind reeling. The waters within you thrash about in your confusion and you don't even know if there is an ebb or flow to you anymore.

You approach the silhouette slowly. You've seen this all before, and it gives you goosebumps. You want to ignore the aching feeling inside that you know her already, because it's stupid and illogical and probably dangerous as fuck. She backs away behind another tree.

"Wait, don't," you're saying without thinking. "Don't go."

You ease toward the tree she's behind. The moon is full and bright, and lights a halo around her sharp edges. You want to see more of her. Slowly you approach, taking care to make your footsteps audible so as not to sneak up on her.

What you see sends chills rippling throughout you. Your desire to see who you saw last night during your sleep had wrinkled the surface of your waters, blinding you to what was right there beneath the waves. The pointy silhouette you're following is not the girl from your dreams, and isn't humanoid at all. Before you is a creature that towers feet above you, with scales the size of your hand and menacing claws curled over it's heart.

You stumble backward, tripping over yourself. As you stumble you see the creature turn away and begin to stalk off. You quickly right yourself and watch it disappear into the trees. Oh God oh God oh God. That was so stupid. Something inside of you tells you that you can trust this creature, and that it won't hurt you. So you must have a death wish, something else tells you, because that's probably the last thought anyone has before being mauled by a bear or munched on by a shark. In the festering cesspool of bad decisions that is your life, this bad decision takes the proverbial moldy cake.

You quickly turn to go. In your scrambled mind you think of what you're going to tell your friends. No big deal, but you almost died last night at the buff jaws of a miniature dinosaur hiding out in the forest by the cemetery. A thick "ha!" actually leaves your throat at that thought. It's responded to with a grunt and you freeze.

You turn around and before you is the creature again. Its head is tilted to the side, studying you. You stand still for what feels like an eternity. In that slow illusion of lifetimes you study it back. The claws are pretty fucking terrifying, and about as big as your face. The tail could probably whack you across this godforsaken cemetery with no problem. Its eyes were set in a way that made it look like it was grinning at you, and you don't know if it unsettled you, reassured you, or pissed you off more.

The creature was stunning and intimidating all at once. Neither of you move for the longest time. Suddenly you release your stilted breath.

You don't want to hurt me.

The thought enters your mind almost like a question, and you question in turn whether it's your own thought or not. You shudder a bit, if only out of discomfort. Is this what Sollux feels like when he gets his weird messages? The beast before you snorts and you're brought back to the here and now so suddenly that all the thoughts floating behind you are thrust into their place.

"No, I don't want to hurt you," you whisper. And you don't have time to wonder whether it heard you or whether it understands you or whether it even cares because you've already decided to reach a hand out to it and see what happens.

It stumbles back a bit and your hand flinches closed as you shake your head. "Sorry," you mumble. "I won't hurt you," you try to show your word by stuffing your hands into your hoodie pocket, "I promise."

Slowly, very slowly, it leans down toward you. You back up a bit to give it room. Its scales glisten as it moves toward you, and in the moonlight you see its milky eyes glazed over and realize it can't see you. You take one hand out of your pocket and let it lie limp by your side. Even without sight it seems to sense that, and its head turns toward the movement. It kneels forward and sniffs your hand. You raise your palm to its nose, pretending you think you're helping it in any way become more comfortable with you.

You don't know if lizards can really smile, giant ones or not, but something about the way it moves its head and its jaw reflects the moonlight tells you it's happy. It's happy with you. It knocks its nose against you and snorts and you actually laugh a little bit now.

A twig snaps somewhere behind it. Instantly you tense. Its head snaps quickly behind it and it turns toward you once before darting off into the forest. It's gone so quickly you can't even follow behind.

On your way out, you leave a few daisies picked from the side of the trail on your dad's grave, with a silent wish for his help on your trip back tomorrow. You take one last look at the mausoleum, the resemblance between the dragon statue and what you just saw in the woods leaves you breathless and excited. The ocean within you is rumbling; there's no way this wave could go away if you tried.

* * *

You accidentally put orange juice in your rainbow colored cereal this morning. You entered the wrong classroom by mistake and couldn't even tell for fifteen minutes because there was a pop quiz question on the board so nobody made a sound. You spilled your bag all over the Lawn B and you're not even sure you got everything because your senses have been off all day. And the boy caught you first. You were not one step ahead. And so you're moving through the day like flying with a busted wing. Now you're hauling ass to Sollux's locker after going the wrong way for five minutes.

When Sollux tells people he has a locker, people surprise themselves by wrongly assuming he's an athlete. The real deal is that the IT team on campus is so keen on him that they gave him a locker early even though he's still in the work-study program. He likes flinging the idea around, though, just to see the looks of sheer unexpectancy each time. You find it hilarious, yourself.

"Sorry I'm late," you huff, out of breath from walk-running across campus.

"It's fine. The asshole's class doesn't get out for another half hour, anyway." Sollux tells you.

"Heh, do you really think he's an asshole or is that you being affectionate?"

"What do you think?"

"He can't be worse than you."

Aradia laughs behind Sollux. "You have no idea."

 

You make your way to the food court where Sollux buys you a pack of gummy worms because he just had to buy two and you're obsessed with wildly colored food stuffs. You're already stretching them between your teeth before he's even handed his cash over.

"So what were you guys 'investigating' at the cemetery the other day, anyway?" you say as you all slide into your seats. You know the statement drips heavy with hurt but you don't care that they know. Since you were little you and Aradia had this thing about investigating your mother's death together. But you were young at the time, and still grieving, so you naturally got around to postponing it. It's been years, though, and you're a young adult now. So you kind of think you could handle it!

Aradia shrugs, "He saw the mausoleum."

"You guys did not even want to text me you were going or anything?"

"I was gonna," Sollux says around his fries, "but AA's friends told us not to worry about it." You know he's not talking about anybody earthly.

"They assured me that everything we discovered you'd already know about. Turns out that's true, because we never discovered anything!"

"I wonder whose fault that is,' Sollux mutters.

"Haven't discovered anything yet!" you pipe up.

"Yet!" she returns, and you both grin wildly at each other.

Suddenly and earthy smell wafts toward you over the fruity scent of gummy worms as somebody slams a tray down on your table. "Tell me why the blistering fuck I'm taking pottery when I'm majoring in goddamn psych, again?"

"We like our students to be well-rounded," Sollux mocks some unknown administrator.

"I find it relaxing, myself," says a quiet voice next to the ornery psychology major. "I think it might be helpful for you to adopt a shift in perspective about it all."

"Hey guys, this is Terezi. TZ, this is Kanaya."

A cool, dry hand with long fingers embraces yours and shakes, "Good afternoon. Nice to meet you," she says.

"Likewise!"

"And this," you can just hear the snarky smile in Sollux's voice, "is Karkat."

You reach for his hand, and you can tell he wasn't expecting the handshake by the delayed and fumbled way he grabs you. His hand is smaller than Kanaya's, with stubby fingers and an almost uncomfortable warmth to them.

"Kaaarkat, huh?" You've been waiting so long for these syllables you play them over on your tongue silently a few times.

"Uh, yeah," Karkat mumbles, and pulls his hand away from you. You hadn't realized you were still shaking it.

You hold your pack of candy out to them. "Gummy worm?"

 

You talk about majors and classes and the weird food court turkey wraps for a while, and you all seem to get along for the most part. Karkat is rather fierce in his language and overly-passionate about tiny things, but it amuses you. Where Kanaya is poised and eloquent, he's harsh and blunt. But he talks to her in a much more calm and friendly tone than he talks to Sollux, and it's interesting to notice the contrast across only a few feet of lunch table.

You're sitting with your chin in your hands, listening to Sollux tiredly lecture Karkat on the mechanics of a good virus when an idea strikes you.

"Hey, you two should come for pizza with us sometime!"

"Oh, that could be fun," Aradia sides with you. Every other week you and your friends go out for pizza at a local place downtown. You'll all invite whoever you're talking with that week, and you end up with a huge group that downs six pizzas and four hours of conversation easily.

"Yeah, why not," Sollux says. He gives them the address and tells them to be there around five thirty on Friday, and you smile to yourself.

* * *

There are aches on your left side, in your shoulder, burning hot on your hand, and against your calf from carrying this godawful heavy bag. You visited three thrift stores and bought out all the goldtone jewelry you could afford to as an offering to the dragon you saw last night. You're pretty sure hoards of treasure was a dragon thing. You're just hoping the half-full tote bag of cheap-ass junk would be good enough to satiate it.

You make your way out pretty far along the trail, past where anybody should see you and close to where you think you found it yesterday. Setting the bag down in front of you, you sigh and hope this isn't for naught. You wait.

Then something brushes against your shoulder.

You startle and let out a squeak. Turning around you see the creature behind you. "God, okay, you're going to have to stop doing that."

It seems to smile at you. You don't think it will stop any time soon. You groan.

You kick the bag of gold in front of it. "Here, I brought this for you."

The dragon sniffs around, then inside the bag. It dips a claw in and out with it comes a tangle of bent necklaces, bracelets and earrings. A slippery tongue slides out of the dragon's mouth to massage the shiny metal. You grimace a bit at that. It drops the jewelry and turns around, stalking away into the trees.

Follow me.

The thought floats before you, and you decide to flow into it. You quickly grab the bag and chase after the dragon. You stay far enough behind to not get in the way of its tail, which isn't hard with how slow you seem to be in comparison.

You're huffing and puffing by the time you catch up to the dragon in the middle of a small clearing. It traces a tiny circle with its footsteps a few times before settling itself into the grass and laying its head over it's treacherous claws. You stand there awkwardly for a bit, just staring and swinging your bag of gold around before you decide to slowly kneel down on the wet grass a little ways away from it.

"Well, I brought you this gold, because I thought you were a dragon or whatever. So you're either not or you just don't give a shit about hoarding treasure," you say aloud. You're talking to a fucking huge and dangerous creature of the night, one who flat out rejected your peace offerings, alone in the woods at night.

The dragon tilts it's head on its hands.

"You remind me of the dragon at the mausoleum over there." You nod your head in the direction you think the cemetery is, before realizing you don't really know. You followed a scaly beast into a dark maze-like forest, by yourself, at night, and now you're talking to it. Lately every new idea you have seems to be fighting for that moldy slice of cake.

"Pyrope was her name." You keep talking to distract yourself. "The lawyer over there. I guess folks called her Redglare though, which sounds more like a dragon name than any term for a professional lawyer any day. So, I don't know if you're a girl-dragon, or if you already have a name or what. But for now you're playing Redglare, in my book, anyway."

The idea floats in the air between you two for a moment. She closes her eyes and settles more comfortably on her hands. You feel like she likes it, and you like it, so you vow to let it stick.

"So, Redglare," you clear your throat. "I might be seeing a lot of you lately. My, uh. My dad's buried right over, you know," you wave your hands dismissively, "over there. And I visit him a lot. And so I could visit you a lot. If you wanted."

You just got casual and personal with a fucking dragon. And it doesn't look like you were stopping any time soon. You laugh out loud at yourself.

"I don't know what the everloving glistening shit I am doing here, Redglare, and I might be riding a roller coaster downhill into mental breakdown territory and not even realize it because I'm going too fast, but I hope you enjoy the company."

This is essentially what therapy is, you guess. Besides the lack of probing questions and validating "ah"s you can see why it's so cathartic for you to have a captive audience and a quiet place to vomit words upon them. You tell her about your dad, and how he died a couple months ago but it still feels like yesterday.

You tell her about the friend of Sollux and Aradia's you met today and how you made fun of her glasses thinking they were some stupid fashion thing like Sollux's but then found out she was legally blind. She exhales deep at that and you feel as though she's laughing at you But you're trying not to get ahead of yourself with all of this.

You tell her about school, and your favorite teachers and the awful pottery class you agreed to take with Kanaya and how you hate the feeling of clay beneath your nails. It's not gold, you tell her, but she can totally have your vase as a chew toy once it's fired. You ask her if she breathes fire. She snorts and you decide it's okay if you don't find out tonight.

You end up walking home around one in the morning. On your way out you decide your dad's grave is littered with enough flowers for now, but you send a quiet thank you over before heading out on your way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have a soundtrack for this fic that i'm stupidly excited about, but the annotations contain hella spoilers~ so look out for a link to it later on!  
> also ao3 is fuckin up my notes i think so we'll hope this one works out alright. thanks for reading!


	4. four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Karkat spends more and more time with Terezi, he finds he spends more and more time with her on his mind.

[dreamwidth mirror](http://crushings.dreamwidth.org/5281.html)

The smell of mozzarella, munster and oregano fills your nostrils as you push the door open of the pizzeria and warmth overcomes you. You hand your jacket to Sollux, not for an inability to find the coat rack yourself, and he hangs it up begrudgingly. A fairly large group is already here. They set up a long string of tables at one end of the pizzeria for all of you. You sit down as close to the middle of the tables as you can; you like being able to eavesdrop on many conversations, just like any good investigator. 

"What's up, fools?" You hear Sollux say beside you.

"Good evening, Sollux," Kanaya returns. 

"I resign myself to the title of fool for thinking spending my dinner-time with you would be anywhere in the eleven block range it took to get here of good ideas," Karkat bites out from where he sits across from you.

You wonder if he's going to head to the cemetery after this. Here doesn't seem to be the right environment for him to let you into his head to find out on your own.

More people arrive and you end up with a party of sixteen rowdy people and eight extra large pizzas, the most you've ever had. The small parlor is buzzing with noise, and so you overwhelm your senses with molten hot cheese and pepper flakes to calm your mind for a while. After a slice and a half you decide to reach out, tossing your consciousness out around the table where tomato scented conversations pull you toward themselves like a magnet.

Somewhere at the end of the table Jade is totally schooling Equius on the most efficient way to build a robot with human hair. Rose is having a spoken word throw down with Dave and his shitty rapping, all while having a side conversation with Kanaya on vampire novels during Dave's turns. Gamzee is meditating at the end of the table, and Sollux keeps throwing crumpled up pieces of napkin into his hair. Aradia and Tavros are devising a night to strategize their LARPing technique, Nepeta and Feferi a date night with sushi and probably a lot of obnoxious puns. Eridan and Karkat were apparently major buds back in middle school, and are already into Eridan's "feelin's" and love life.

"Okay, so as long as you're willing to listen to me, this'll be great. It'll be just like the movie Hitch, where you're the sympathetic everyman character pining over a girl way out of your league, and I will be the knowledgeable tall, dark, and handsome match-maker with all the romance tips you need."

"Tall?" Kanaya drawls.

"Handsome?" Sollux says at the same time.

"Fuck you guys, I was just making a comparison."

"Karkat that movie is so dumb. What you need is to get back to the classics," John pipes up. "Something like Bill Cosby's Ghost Dad!"

"I haven't even heard of that movie but it sounds like shit, too" you add.

"John how dare you," Karkat says, scandalized. "At least I don't waste twenty minutes trying to convince an entire Western Pop Culture class that Ghostbusters II was a cinematic masterpiece."

"All your tastes in movies are terrible!" you shout across the table.

"Oh yea--" John starts.

"Yeah!" you get in before he can continue.

"Well what kind of tripe do you like watching, then, Terezi?" Karkat asks.

"Nothing! I'm blind remember."

You hear him struggle to respond and can't help cackling in return.

"I like series, like Law and Order," you continue. Sollux makes the scene transition noise in the background for you, "crime of the week with stretched out character conflict. Movies only have two hours to pack a punch, and most of them fail miserably. At least with shows the bad episodes can be outweighed by many more good ones."

"So you like listening to censored goreporn but not the intricacies of human relationships; I'm fucking sorry for you."

"I also like true crime documentaries, and those are rarely as censored."

"Oh no, is she waxing light about criminals and the long arm of the law already?" Vriska yells from down the tables.

"Not yet!" you yell back.

"Hey, who's the new kid? He's kinda cuuuuuuuute."

"Leave him alone, Vriska," you sound kind of defensive and you know it. You and Vriska had a falling out recently, and if you and Karkat are going to get to know each other, you'd rather not have her poking around in the meantime.

"Well geez Miss Justice, I didn't know I couldn't talk to anybody I wanted just because you said so!"

"Whatever." You take a bite of your pizza to show you're done with this conversation.

"It's okay, new kid. Hit me up once Terezi is gone, I think we could be great friends." She doesn't even know anything about him, you think to youself. Karkat says nothing, still.

Suddenly you're coughing up a storm, having inhaled a hot pepper flake down your windpipe.

"Shit are you okay, TZ?" Sollux asks without turning toward you. You guzzle water down your throat and hack a little. You calm down a bit now but your eyes are still watering.

Next to you Nepeta walks a clawed hand over to your plate. "AC wanders over to see what all the ruckus GC is making is about." You and her were partnered together for a writing warm up in Composition 101 where you made up a story about a mighty dragon and a fierce mountain lion hunting in the woods together. She's kind of let it go on ever since then, and you humor her because you think it's funny and because you'll take any excuse to talk about dragons.

You voice trembles from the trauma it just incurred."GC waves her mighty dragon claws in the air to show it's no big deal," you cough again, waving your own hand in the air dismissively.

"Dragons. What are you talking about? You like dragons?" Karkat asks.

"Oh yes! They're the best."

He seems to contemplate this. "What do you even know about them?"

"They are very mighty and strong, and should you meet one you should never underestimate their fierceness. They hate that! They've got a special way of speaking with humans, but only once they are ready. So don't pressure them! They keep hoards of treasures hidden in safe places. Each dragon hoard is different, because each dragon has something different and special that is a treasure to them! They don't like moving around a lot, because their mightiness should be able to overcome all obstacles that might try to force them from a place." You sigh in remembrance, "However, sometimes it is necessary. They will try to bring their hoards with them whenever they can, but it's not always possible." You're getting sad thinking about this, and pause for a moment, trying to think of how to change the subject.

"Also they have very powerful claws! Don't mess with those suckers or else you're in for a real messy and painful surprise," you add finally. Karkat seems to approve of the message, as you sense him nod solemnly.

"How did you get to know so much, anyway. Is there like a book I c-- don't know, someone could read or something?"

"Oh no, silly. I just know all this because," you lean in to him, and you sense him lean toward you as well. You lower your voice, "because I am a dragon!"

You can tell Sollux is rolling his eyes right now, and Aradia giggles behind her hand and you're laughing, too. Karkat backs away with an exasperated air. You let out a roar, just a tiny one, but even that has Karkat weirded out. He looks around to see if anybody else is reacting, but by now they're all used to it.

You're pretty sure you've got him, now.

* * *

It's been a few weeks, and as often as you can on weekdays you stop by the cemetery, and then into the woods to talk with Redglare. You tried asking her once what her special treasure was, and the answer you think you got was that it's still a secret. That's fine, you let it slide. You're still shaken a bit over those claws.

Now, you're laying back in the tall grass, backpack beneath your head and staring up at the stars as you tell Redglare about your day. You've been getting such little sleep at night that today Sollux commented that the bags under your eyes brought attention away from your constant scowl. You got a B on the math midterm, which you weren't expecting. Your vase came back from the kiln, and you swiftly brought it to Redglare, who is now playing with it on the end of her tail. And you saw Terezi, who makes enough of an impression to never not be able to mention.

Today you were at a Twister tournament that she'd organized for the Murder Mystery Club to raise money for new books.

"And she fucking licks the spinner. Just straight up rubs her tongue all over the thing," you tell Redglare. "She said she needed to taste the colors to find out where each one was. Why they had the fucking blind girl run the spinner is a stupid backwards mystery in itself. But I guess she organized the whole tournament thing by herself, so they let her do whatever the mucousy fuck she wanted. Which is kind of cool of her. I guess."

You had ended up playing Twister and hanging out there for about an hour and a half. If anybody asked, it was just because you had time to kill before your next class and didn't want lunch that day, anyway. Which is the truth. If anybody were to ask.

"And she's like, enamored with the law, apparently. Like I knew she was studying to be a criminal investigator or something, but I didn't realize she was fucking Lady Justice themed, you know. Aradia and Kanaya were talking about some history class shit and Terezi literally interrupted by screeching 'Objection!' like a goddamn diaper-soiling infant banshee.

You and Kanaya have made a habit out of eating lunch with the Spooky Duo and Terezi at least three times a week. You guess they've been upgraded now to the Creepy Trio. Aradia has her ghosts, Sollux hears voices of the almost ghosts, and Terezi... well she licks things a lot and that grosses you out.

"She's so loud, too. Like I can't do anything in even remote proximity to her without always hearing her voice and her stupid laugh in my ear. It's like I even hear her when she's not there, that's how bad it is."

Redglare is clawing at the ground now, trying to make the perfect pile of dirt for the vase to sit atop with her wicked claws.

"At least it's never a boring time with Terezi around. One time some teacher was being an ostentatious taintchafing shithead to Kanaya and Terezi actually started a petition for him to regrade her paper. Sollux has nothing better to do than suggest hacking his computer, but she insisted the more official - and obviously legal - the revenge, the sweeter. And I'm pretty sure she meant literally sweet, somehow.

"Then she tried bribing people to sign by saying she'd draw something for them. Like of all the socket-fucking stupid ideas out there in the aether, letting a sightless justice junkie scribble you a caricature in waxy gunk on the back of your syllabus sounds pretty harmless, but still fucking stupid, right?" You pluck some grass absentmindedly. "Somehow her drawings aren't half bad. They look like the pretentious shit that belongs in a modern art museum where everyone is so far up their own ass they'd be viewing the art through their own pie holes. Actually, the contemporary art elitist shitfest would probably eat that junk up."

Redglare stops and snorts until you look at her. Her glossy eyes seem intrigued, but she continues playing with the vase in the dirt.

"See she's actually really creative and shit, she just uses it in weird-ass ways. Like drawing when she can't see or freaking people out by insisting she can smell what's going on. And it is freaky, because she can always tell what's happening somehow. She knows when people shrug or frown or roll their eyes. Aradia had a bruise on her knee and the first utterly asinine thing out of Terezi's mouth was that it smelled good. She somehow knows when I wear even a flea's shits worth of the color red and attributes not a soaring modicum of strangeness or awkwardness to saying it's 'delicious' on me. 

"Honestly, she's kind of funny, sometimes. And she knows how to piss off Sollux, which is hilarious. Sometimes I go off on her, because I'm a hideous asshole I guess, right, and then it makes me mad because she won't even act like I'm a piece of shit. She'll just dish my shit right back at me like it's the soup of the day that they've still got vats of from last week and secretly mixed in with the new shit."

You're sitting up now, and talking with your hands. Redglare has stopped messing with the vase, and it sits proudly upon it's tiny mountain display. 

"Terezi can't be anywhere without you always knowing she's there in a huge attention-dripping way. It's like Terezi Land all the time, a traveling carnival of boisterous mushroom-eating crayon-wielding glory. Except minus the mushrooms, because I'm pretty sure her particular brand of deranged is not even illicit drug induced, since she's so head over heels for the law. Yet somehow the carnival is open twenty-four/seven, and sponsors a persistent vigilance for potential criminal activity as a side job. Aradia calls it Terezi being 'curious' and 'a good detective', I call it being nosy as all get out."

You pause for a while, only half-noticing you've been ranting about Terezi for an hour already. Redglare doesn't seem to mind though, head on her hands and tail waving slowly in the air.

"Sollux had the audacity to say I was 'obsessed with her' the other day. She's such a ridiculously rambunctious spaz queen who is constantly on the upward spiral of an acid trip where she says she can taste colors and smell my facial expressions. I've got enough drama in my life without her sideshow of rainbow-scented crazy. And frankly she could drop off the face of this godforsaken planet like a drop of snot off a smelly third grader's nose and I wouldn't give a shit."

Part of you fears that might not be 100% true, and that just by thinking it Redglare knows it, too. But it's true enough so you try not to dwell on it. What it's hard not to dwell on is the myriad of other stupid things there are about Terezi.

You scoff, "I'm not obsessed with her. She's just a melodramatic in-your-face case, so of course I think about her a lot." 

Fuck you don't know what you are, but you're hoping it's not obsessed. Whatever it is, it has you ebbing and flowing and finally, and not wanting to stop.

**Author's Note:**

> it was interesting trying to write these characters as still themselves but with grief on their backs at the same time. hopefully it doesn't seem too ooc rn. i promise the rest of the story won't be so somber like this very first chapter! thank you for reading


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